Geek-News.Net

Google SearchWiki, Elevate, Delete, Add, And Annotate Search Results

2008-11-20T19:15:00.000-08:00

Google's SearchWiki has now been released to the masses. If you've been using Google search today you might have noticed the new feature that allows you to elevate (vote up), delete, add, and annotate search results.

Google remembers the changes a person made to search results, so repeat searches will show the same customizations and notes. Google has been offering SearchWiki as an experimental feature to select users for months, but starting today it will become available to anybody who's searching while logged in with a Google account.

"This is a search feature that gets a user more control over their search results," said Cedric Dupont, Google's SearchWiki product manager. "SearchWiki allows you to reorder, remove or add notes to specific web search results so that the next time you do the same search, you'll see the customized result set that you prefer."

Google has also added a social networking dimension to its engine. If a user wants to comment on a result, for instance to note that this is best site for Italian restaurants in New York, then a click brings up a text box and the comment can be typed in.

Mr Dupont said: "Comments are a great way to save and recall any thoughts you had or notes you took about a particular webpage. These are also public for others to view and get feedback on a website. We want to make this a much more interactive platform."

At the bottom of a SearchWiki results page, there is a link to a page which shows what search results others have re-ranked, deleted or added in aggregate. It also allows others in the SearchWiki community to see members' public comments on a given result, with their Google account nickname associated with their comment.

Rumor: iPhone 3G Coming to Wal-Mart

2008-11-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

The Boy Genius Report is reporting that select Wal-Mart stores will start carrying the iPhone 3G, on December 28. About 2,500 Wal-Mart locations will offer the device, according to the site, as will 69 Sam's Club locations.

The site claims to have "confirmation" in the form of leaked internal Wal-Mart correspondence. Here are the details as they have posted them:

We are pleased to announce that Wal-Mart has reached agreement with Apple to offer iPhone 3G in Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart-managed Sam’s Club* Connection Centers nationwide beginning December 28, 2008. AT&T will support Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club with the activation process for iPhone 3G, and we need all National Retail employees engaged to ensure a successful launch.

*NOTE: This product launch DOES NOT apply to SC Kiosks within Sam’s Club managed by Radio Shack.

Wal-Mart has communicated the following launch plans and execution timeline to their employees:

iPhone 3G will be available in-store only beginning 12/28/08
New and existing customers in good standing can purchase iPhone 3G with a 2 year contract
iPhone 3G transactions only will be processed through POS.com, not the kiosk

Execution Timeline:

12/2 – 12/5: AT&T / Wal-Mart MEM Classroom Training for Store Leads
12/3 – 12/19: AT&T In-Store Training
12/26 – 12/27: AT&T In-Store Refresher Training
12/28: Nationwide Launch
12/28 – 12/30: Wal-Mart and AT&T War Room Support

No mention of pricing or any potential drop in cost is mentioned in the alleged leak. If the rumor is true we might see a price drop similar to that of the discounted G-1.

Wal-Mart would neither directly confirm nor deny the report. A spokesperson told PC World that "Wal-Mart has not made an official announcement about offering the iPhone."

Google Adds Themes To Gmail

2008-11-19T14:23:00.000-08:00

Many users had reported spotting the feature in their Gmail account but there had been little to no official word until now. Details have been posted on the Official Gmail Blog.

Gmail fans have been building unofficial extensions to spice up their inboxes for a while, but up til now themes haven't been an integral part of Gmail. We wanted to go beyond simple color customization, so out of the 30 odd themes we're launching today, there's a shiny theme with chrome styling, another one that turns your inbox into a retro notepad, nature themes that change scenery over time, weather driven themes that can rain on your mailbox, and fun characters to keep you in good company. There's even an old school ascii theme (Terminal) which was the result of a bet between two engineers -- it's not exactly practical, but it's great for testing out your geek cred. We've also done a minor facelift to Gmail's default look to make it crisper and cleaner -- you might notice a few colors and pixels shifted around here and there.

For those of you that are lucky enough to be a part of the initial roll out you can customize your inbox by going to the Themes tab under Settings. Google has said they'll be rolling out themes to everyone over the next couple of days, so if like me you don't see them yet, check back soon.

Intel Core i7 Demand Not Expected To Rise Until 3Q09

2008-11-19T10:30:00.000-08:00

Citing a dropping global economy and the high cost of entry to upgrade to the cheapest Core i7 CPU and X58 motherboard, motherboard manufactures suggest that demand for the Intel Core i7 won't rise until the third quarter of 2009.

Since the Core i7 is a totally new platform, users are required to not only buy a new CPU but buy a new motherboard as well as new memory in most cases. The entry level cost for the CPU alone is over $300 and early revisions of the X58 motherboards are $200 and up. A $500 entry level price tag just for your base components is pretty steep for most consumers.

I for one have never been big on early adoption of new hardware. For one thing you spend a great deal more money. Chasing the "latest greatest" in tech is a costly venture as neew hardware always comes with a hefty price tag. So I've always figured why not wait a few months for prices to drop.

Another thing with new tech is that its not "user tested", yes they test it in the labs but often times its not until they get things out on the market that bugs turn up. First revisions of motherboards are notorious for having issues. Everything from faulty sensors to BIOS issues. Waiting a month or two (or more) for them to work out the bugs could save some headaches.

Personally I think users might want to use this time as a chance to upgrade existing machines to something better, but not the Core i7. According to DigiTimes motherboard vendors still have huge inventories of Intel P45 chipsets, which it says will require 3-6 months to digest. If they are looking to slash those inventories you could see some pretty hefty discounts on some great boards.

If you are using a first generation Core 2 Duo and an older board it might be the perfect time to swap out those older parts for something new and faster. Memory prices are at an all time low, Intel has been slashing prices left and right and if (and that is a big if) motherboard manufactures start slashing prices you could get a top notch machine that should last you for a few years at a great price.

Microsoft To Offer Free Security Suite

2008-11-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has decided to discontinue its subscription-based consumer security suite and instead offer individuals free software to protect their PCs. The free security suite from MS will be code-named “Morro,” and is expected to be available in the second half of 2009.

In a statement issued yesterday, Microsoft promised the new sucurity suite will provide comprehensive protection from malware including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans. Microsoft also said the software will be architected for a smaller footprint that will use fewer computing resources, making it ideal for low-bandwidth scenarios or less powerful PCs.

“Customers around the world have told us that they need comprehensive, ongoing protection from new and existing threats, and we take that concern seriously,” said Amy Barzdukas, senior director of product management for the Online Services and Windows Division at Microsoft. “This new, no-cost offering will give us the ability to protect an even greater number of consumers, especially in markets where the growth of new PC purchases is outpaced only by the growth of malware.”

Morro, which will be available for download over the Internet, will work on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and the upcoming Windows 7.

The company also announced that it will discontinue retail sales of its Windows Live OneCare subscription service effective June 30, 2009. Windows Live OneCare will continue to be sold for Windows XP and Windows Vista at retail through June 30, 2009. Direct sales of OneCare will be gradually phased out when “Morro” becomes available. Microsoft has said regardless of the method of purchase, they will ensure that all current customers remain protected through the life of their subscriptions.

For current One Care users thatt think they should be refunded Microsoft's Barzdukas said customers can get refunds if they feel they are owed them. "We will absolutely do the right thing by our customers, and if the customer wants to call our free phone support line we'll make sure they are happy," she said.

A posting on the Windows Live OneCare Team Blog has a detailed FAQ for customers.

Microsoft Cuts Zune Prices, Releases Zune 3.1 Firmware

2008-11-19T05:15:00.000-08:00

Just in time for the holidays Microsoft slashed price on its Zune media players and accessories.

According to ZuneInsider.com, the new Zune prices are $179 for the 16 gigabyte version (versus $199 for Apple’s 16 GB iPod nano), $139 for the 8 GB version (versus $149 for Apple’s 8 GB iPod) and a 4 GB Zune model coming in at $99. Accessories like the Zune Car Pack, Dock Pack and Home/AV Pack received price cuts of up to $20.

Pricing at two of our advertisers, Buy.com and Newegg.com, don't yet reflect the price cuts. The
Black 8GB Microsoft Zune is currently priced $149.99 at Newegg and $143.80 + Shipping at Buy.com

Microsoft has also released firmware version 3.1 for all models of the Zune MP3 player, and an update to the Zune PC software. The updated firmware adds three new games: Checkers; Sudoku; and Space Battle; as well as a new multiplayer mode for the existing Texas Hold 'Em card game. The multiplayer mode takes advantage of the Zune's Wi-Fi, letting players connect to other players with Zunes. The new Zune Checkers game also supports wireless two-player gameplay.

To get the new update, use the PC software, just click settings: check for updates. If you’re new to Zune, you can download the software for free at www.zune.net.

New AMD CPU Numbering Scheme

2008-11-18T14:00:00.000-08:00

According to DigiTimes AMD has a new CPU numbering scheme similar to Intel Core i7.

AMD has recently changed its CPU numbering scheme plans from five digits number to only three digits, similar to that of Intel's Core i7 CPUs, according to sources at motherboard makers.

AMD's upcoming Phenom X4 20350 and 20550 CPUs will be renamed to Phenom II X4 920 and Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition, respectively. The launch date of the products will also be delayed from November this year to during CES 2009 in January next year.

The company's 45nm AM3-based CPUs will also be renamed to the Phenom II X4 900, X4 800 and X3 700 series, and will launch in the second quarter of next year. AMD is also planning to launch a quad-core high-end CPU, Phenom II X4 945 Black Edition, in the second quarter next year along with the Phenom II X3 600 and Phenom II X2 200 series.

New At Google This Week

2008-11-18T13:30:00.000-08:00

Monday:

Announcing Sketchup 7

Google SketchUp 7

Want to track Adobe Flash? Now you can!

Now you can speak to Google Mobile App on your iPhone

Official Google Mobile Blog

Ads In New Places

click-to-buy

Google Finance

Tuesday:

Life Photo Archive Available On Google Image Search

Eric Schmidt on what's ahead in 2009

Google Gadgets for Linux 0.10.3

features introduced in the 5.8 release

Wednesday:

Get a headstart on the holidays with Docs templates

templates for the holidays

Template Gallery

Spice up your inbox with colors and themes

Google Sync for BlackBerry: Now with contacts

Google Sync for BlackBerry

Thursday:

360 degree panoramas in Google Earth

360cities.net

Moving quickly to rebuild the economy through clean energy

Clean Energy 2030

knol

SearchWiki: make search your own

follow up post

NVIDIA Creates "Tesla Personal SuperComputer"

2008-11-18T11:38:00.000-08:00

NVIDIA has announced the launch of a new high performance computing processor series based on its graphics processing unit (GPU) technology which the company claims will make parallel computing power more pervasive and affordable. That "personal supercomputer" is actually a platform based on NVIDIA's new Tesla C1060 GPU Computing Processor, which itself is based on NVIDIA's CUDA parallel computing architecture.

NVIDIA Press Release
NVIDIA Tesla Makes Personal SuperComputing A Reality
Today, scientific research is carried out on supercomputing clusters, a shared resource that consumes hundreds of kilowatts of power and costs millions of dollars to build and maintain. As a result, researchers must fight for time on these resources, slowing their work and delaying results. NVIDIA and its worldwide partners today announced the availability of the GPU-based Tesla™ Personal Supercomputer, which delivers the equivalent computing power of a cluster, at 1/100th of the price and in a form factor of a standard desktop workstation.

“We’ve all heard ‘desktop supercomputer’ claims in the past, but this time it’s for real,” said Burton Smith, Microsoft Technical Fellow. “NVIDIA and its partners will be delivering outstanding performance and broad applicability to the mainstream marketplace. Heterogeneous computing, where GPUs work in tandem with CPUs, is what makes such a breakthrough possible.”

Priced like a conventional PC workstation, yet delivering 250 times the processing power, researchers now have the horsepower to perform complex, data-intensive computations right at their desk, processing more data faster and cutting time to discovery.

“GPUs have evolved to the point where many real world applications are easily implemented on them and run significantly faster than on multi-core systems,” said Prof. Jack Dongarra, director of the Innovative Computing Laboratory at the University of Tennessee and author of LINPACK. “Future computing architectures will be hybrid systems with parallel-core GPUs working in tandem with multi-core CPUs."

Leading institutions including MIT, the Max Planck Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Cambridge University, and others are already advancing their research using GPU-based personal supercomputers.

“GPU based systems enable us to run life science codes in minutes rather than the hours it took earlier. This exceptional speedup has the ability to accelerate the discovery of potentially life-saving anti-cancer drugs,” said Jack Collins, manager of scientific computing and program development at the Advanced Biomedical Computing Center in Frederick Md., operated by SAIC-Frederick, Inc.

At the core of the GPU-based Tesla Personal Supercomputer is the Tesla C1060 GPU Computing Processor which is based on the NVIDIA® CUDA™ parallel computing architecture. CUDA enables developers and researchers to harness the massively parallel computational power of Tesla through industry standard C.

“Dell has led the workstation category for almost a decade and GPU computing represents a massive leap forward in performance that will bring supercomputer power to the masses,” said Antonio Julio, director, Dell Product Group. “The Dell Precision R5400 and T7400 will allow the scientific community to harness the capabilities of the NVIDIA Tesla C1060 GPU with up to two teraflops of computational power.”

As well as Dell, GPU-based Tesla Personal Supercomputers are available today from the following leading HPC OEMs, Systems Builders and Resellers: AMAX (US), Armari (UK), Asus (WW), Azken Muga (ES), Boxx (US), CAD2 (UK), CADnetwork (DE), Carri (FR), Colfax (US), Comptronic (DE), Concordia (IT), Connoisseur (IN), Dell (WW), Dospara (JP), E-Quattro (IT), JRTI (US), Lenovo (WW), Littlebit (CH), Meijin (RU), Microway (US), Sprinx (CZ), Sysgen (DE), Transtec (DE),Tycrid (US), Unitcom (JP), Ustar (UKR),Viglen (UK), Western Scientific (US)

To learn more about the industry-changing applications benefitting from NVIDIA GPU Computing technology, visit www.nvidia.com/cuda and for more information on the GPU-based NVIDIA Tesla Personal Supercomputer, please visit www.nvidia.com/personal_supercomputing.

Comcast Expands 50 Mbs Wideband To Pacific Northwest

2008-11-18T11:27:00.000-08:00

Comcast has announced that their new 50 Mbps wideband service will begin rolling out starting in December in Washington and Oregon. This includes Seattle, Portland, Eugene and Spokane (and everywhere in between).

With wideband, Comcast will offer among the fastest speeds available today, including the Extreme 50 tier with download speeds of up to 50 Mbps. Wideband will also enable Comcast to double speeds for the majority of existing high-speed Internet customers at no additional cost.

“Wideband is a revolutionary leap in offering superfast high-speed Internet service in Oregon and Southwest Washington. By running wideband service over our next-generation fiber-optic network, we are able to dramatically enhance our customers’ online experience immediately. And these speeds are only a preview of what’s to come—in the future we’ll have the capability to deliver even faster speeds in excess of 160 Mbps,” said Curt Henninger, Senior Vice President of Comcast Oregon and SW Washington. “Today’s announcement reaffirms Comcast’s commitment to offering nearly every customer in the Northwest the ability to enjoy some of the fastest Internet speeds available today.”

Comcast announced the launch of their new Docsis 3.0 wideband service last month. The service was initially only offered in parts New England, including Boston, New Hampshire Philidelphia and parts of New Jersey.

As part of the wideband deployment, Comcast will launch two new premium speed tiers to its residential and business class customers. Both new services are ideal for households or businesses simultaneously using several computers or Internet-connected devices. They also will appeal to those who simply want some of the fastest speeds available today:

New Residential Tiers

For more details read the full Comcast press release.

USB 3.0 Specifications Now Available

2008-11-17T19:33:00.000-08:00

The USB 3.0 Promoter Group today announced the completion of the USB 3.0 specification, the technical map for device manufacturers to deliverSuperSpeed USB technology to the market.

SuperSpeed USB brings significant power and performance enhancements to the popular USB standard while offering backward compatibility with billions of USB-enabled PCs and peripheral devices currently in use by consumers. Delivering data transfer rates up to ten times faster than Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0) with optimized power efficiency, SuperSpeed USB is the next step in the continued evolution of USB technology.

“SuperSpeed USB is the next advancement in ubiquitous technology,” said Jeff Ravencraft, USB-IF president and chairman. “Today’s consumers are using rich media and large digital files that need to be easily and quickly transferred from PCs to devices and vice versa. SuperSpeed USB meets the needs of everyone from the tech-savvy executive to the average home user.”

The USB 3.0 Promoter Group, comprised of Hewlett-Packard Company, Intel Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, NEC Corporation, ST-NXP Wireless and Texas Instruments, developed the USB 3.0 specification. The group now has transitioned the specification’s management to the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), the managing body of USB specifications. The USB 3.0 Promoter Group is now accepting adopters of the USB 3.0 specification, which has been finalized at the 1.0 level. To download both the specification and adopter agreement, visit http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/.

It is anticipated that initial SuperSpeed USB discrete controllers will appear in the second half of 2009 and consumer products will appear in 2010, with adoption continuing throughout 2010. The first SuperSpeed USB devices will likely include data-storage devices such as flash drives, external hard drives, digital music players and digital cameras.

The USB 3.0 specification debuted today in conjunction with the first SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference in San Jose, California. The conference provides attendees the first opportunity to hear directly from the creators of the USB 3.0 specification; keynote speakers will address advancements offered by the new technology. In addition to technical sessions, an exhibit area will showcase the latest developments and early designs featuring SuperSpeed USB technology. Attendees will obtain information on the best practices for incorporating SuperSpeed USB into their product roadmaps.

The USB 3.0 specification includes many advancements for both consumers and adopters, including higher speeds and enhanced power efficiency. For more information about the USB 3.0 specification, visit http://www.usb.org/developers.

Source: USB Implementers Forum Press Release (PDF)

Mark Cuban Faces Insider Trading Charges

2008-11-17T18:33:00.000-08:00

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Dallas entrepreneur Mark Cuban with insider trading for selling 600,000 shares of the stock of an Internet search engine company on the basis of material, non-public information concerning an impending stock offering.

The Commission's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges that in June 2004, Mamma.com Inc. invited Cuban to participate in the stock offering after he agreed to keep the information confidential. The complaint further alleges that Cuban knew that the offering would be conducted at a discount to the prevailing market price and that it would be dilutive to existing shareholders.

Within hours of receiving this information, according to the complaint, Cuban called his broker and instructed him to sell Cuban's entire position in the company. When the offering was publicly announced, Mamma.com's stock price opened at $11.89, down $1.215 or 9.3 percent from the prior day's closing price of $13.105. According to the complaint, Cuban avoided losses in excess of $750,000 by selling his stock prior to the public announcement of the offering.

"Insider trading cases are a high priority for the Commission. This case demonstrates yet again that the Commission will aggressively pursue illegal insider trading whenever it occurs," said Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement.

Scott W. Friestad, Deputy Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, said, "As we allege in the complaint, Mamma.com entrusted Mr. Cuban with nonpublic information after he promised to keep the information confidential. Less than four hours later, Mr. Cuban betrayed that trust by placing an order to sell all of his shares. It is fundamentally unfair for someone to use access to nonpublic information to improperly gain an edge on the market."

The complaint alleges that Cuban violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Commission's complaint seeks to permanently enjoin Cuban from future violations of the federal securities laws, disgorgement (with prejudgment interest), and a financial penalty.

Cuban posted the statement below on his blog. obviously for legal reasons he can't comment too much.

I wish I could say more, but I will have to leave it to this, and let the judicial process do its job.
November 17, 2008
RE: SEC Civil Action in the United States District

for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division

Mark Cuban today responded to a civil complaint filed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States District for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division. In its complaint, the Commission charges that Mr. Cuban engaged in violations of the federal securities laws in connection with transactions in the securities of Mamma.com Inc.

This matter, which has been pending before the Commission for nearly two years, has no merit and is a product of gross abuse of prosecutorial discretion. Mr. Cuban intends to contest the allegations and to demonstrate that the Commission’s claims are infected by the misconduct of the staff of its Enforcement Division.

Mr. Cuban stated, “I am disappointed that the Commission chose to bring this case based upon its Enforcement staff’s win-at-any-cost ambitions. The staff’s process was result-oriented, facts be damned. The government’s claims are false and they will be proven to be so.”

*Update*

Mark Cuban has posted a second update to his blog titled SEC P2

November 18, 2008

On behalf of

Mark Cuban

RE: SEC Civil Action in the United States District

for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division

The SEC knows their case centers on one telephone conversation between two individuals- 4 years ago. The SEC claims there was an agreement between these parties to the conversation to keep certain information confidential. We interviewed Guy Faure, the former CEO of Mamma.com Inc., with whom the SEC claims Mr. Cuban made an agreement. We had a court reporter transcribe the interview. There was no agreement to keep information confidential. Here is a relevant excerpt from the interview with Mr. Faure:

CHRISTOPHER CLARK :

1) Q- We spoke earlier about you were telling Mr. Cuban in words or substance : “I have confidential information for you”.

A- Right.

2) Q- Do you recall anything Mr. Cuban said in response or reply to that statement by you ?

A- No, I do not.

The SEC knows this-they have the transcript, yet they brought the case anyway. Why? Do they have a different statement from Mr. Faure ?

Why did the SEC end their multi-year investigation of Mamma.com Inc. for alleged securities laws violations days before interviewing present and former Mamma.com Inc. executives about this matter? Was the timing a coincidence? We think not.

Any inquiries respecting this release should be directed to Stephen Best at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP (202) 346-8735.

I've always liked Mark's style, from what I can see he's open, honest and not afraid to tell it how he thinks it should be. Kudos to Mr. Cuban for taking on the SEC and sharing it with the public.

Source: SEC Press Release

ZoneAlarm Pro 24-Hour Giveaway

2008-11-17T18:17:00.000-08:00

Check Point Software Technologies is celebrating its 15th anniversary tomorrow by giving away free copies of its vaunted firewall software ZoneAlarm Pro 2009. The promotion runs for 24 hours, from 6 a.m. PST Tuesday, November 18 to 6 a.m. Wednesday, November 19

The offer is limited to one download per customer and is available here.

ASRock Demos Instant Boot

2008-11-14T12:44:00.000-08:00

Motherboard manufacturer ASRock has put out a video showing its new Instant Boot feature that can boot a computer from a full shutdown to Windows XP or Vista 10 times faster than standard PCs -- in other words, about 3 to 4 seconds.

Thanks to this new BIOS feature which can be downloaded and installed on nine of ASRock’s current boards, when the operating system is shut down it goes through a process of rebooting and then hibernates / goes into suspend mode until the user presses the power button again.

Instant Boot will only work on computers that have only one user account and no password protection. Pretty obviously if you have a need for more than one user account there would still be a need for user input to decide which account to boot to.

NVIDIA Price Cuts Coming Soon

2008-11-14T11:12:00.000-08:00

Disturbed by the rising presence of ATI in the graphics card market, NVIDIA is planning a counter attack by cutting the prices of most of its current products.

If the reports on DigiTimes are correct, NVIDIA is going to slash the prices across its entire high-end GeForce GTX 200 line-up, as well as the mainstream GeForce 9800 GT and GeForce 9600 GT series.

With AMD making gains in the discrete graphics card market – rising to around 40% in third-quarter 2008 according to a recent report from Jon Peddie Research (JPR) – Nvidia is planning to cut its graphics card prices in an attempt to curb further loss of market share, according to sources at graphics card makers.

AMD anticipates taking 50% of the market after reducing prices for its ATI Radeon HD 4000 series products, but to counter Nvidia has also made moves to cut prices for its GeForce GTX 200, 9800 GT and 9600 GT series.

Unfortunately, there aren't any hints as to when and by how much the prices will go down. If the information is accurate and I was to venture a guess I'd say we could see a drop coming in the next few weeks. NVIDIA would be crazy not to try to take advantage of a price right before the busy holiday season.

AMD Details ATI Stream, GPU-Accelerated Computing

2008-11-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

AMD announced that starting next month, the company plans to release for download a free ATI Catalyst driver update that instantly unlocks new ATI Stream acceleration capabilities already built into millions of ATI Radeon graphics cards.

ATI Stream is a set of advanced hardware and software technologies that enable AMD graphics processors (GPU), working in concert with the system’s central processor (CPU), to accelerate applications beyond just graphics. This results in better balanced platforms capable of running demanding computing tasks faster than ever.

ATI Stream-enabled software titles for entertainment, gaming and productivity are being released or are under development by a growing list of independent software vendors (ISVs) including ArcSoft and CyberLink.

To give users immediate benefit from ATI Stream, AMD also plans to release in December a free downloadable version of its ATI Avivo Video Converter utility. This intuitive, easy-to-use application enables transcoding of HD video up to 17 times faster1 than with the CPU alone, in tests performed using an ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card.

“ATI Stream is one of the best examples of the power of Fusion, and today’s announcement is the first major step in taking this important new technology mainstream,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Graphics Products Group, AMD. “For the millions of people that have already purchased an ATI Radeon HD 4000 series graphics card, this is one more way we’re saying thank you and helping them get more out of their investment. For those who haven’t yet, it’s one more reason for them to go online right now and buy one.”

ATI Radeon graphics processors from AMD are already found in millions of PCs around the world, each running the ATI Catalyst software driver. In the past 12 months, the various ATI Catalyst driver packages have been downloaded 48 million times, averaging nearly four million downloads each month.

The next ATI Catalyst release is version 8.12. AMD has begun distributing a beta version to its hardware and software technology partners for testing, with the final version scheduled to be released for download on or around December 10.

Once installed, the driver package automatically turns on the ATI Stream acceleration capabilities within ATI Radeon HD 4000 series graphics cards. This will have the immediate effect of allowing any ATI Stream-enabled application to run faster, with no special effort required by consumers to enable this technology. As always, expert users will have the ability to customize their ATI Catalyst driver install options.

Users can then download and install the free ATI Avivo Video Converter. In tests performed using this utility, AMD was able to convert an hour of video to a portable player format in about 12 minutes. Combined with one of the recent ATI Radeon HD 4000 series graphics card offerings, the ATI Avivo Video Converter helps deliver video conversion at up to twice the speed of competing solutions, at just over half of the suggested retail price. A growing number of ISVs are also lining up to provide ATI Stream-enabled applications, including ArcSoft, a leading provider of innovative digital imaging technologies and multimedia solutions. The company plans to provide an update in December to its TotalMedia Theatre application that will includes ArcSoft SimHD, a new type of post processing technology that allows consumers to experience close-to-HD viewing of standard definition content thanks to ATI Stream.

Another is CyberLink, an innovative software developer for digital media creation, playback, sharing, and enjoyment applications, has optimized its award-winning video editing software, PowerDirector 7. PowerDirector provides a robust set of features and functionality for capturing, editing and distributing HD video. The updated version, which is scheduled to be released in Q1 2009 will include ATI Stream accelerated video conversion, featuring performance and functionality exceeding that of the Avivo Video Converter.

To ensure easier development of ATI Stream enabled applications capable of running on platforms from multiple vendors, AMD is a member of the Khronos working group defining the OpenCL standard, and is evolving the ATI Stream SDK to be fully OpenCL compliant.

About ATI Stream

ATI Stream is a set of open AMD technologies that allow the hundreds of parallel Stream cores inside AMD GPUs to accelerate general purpose applications, resulting in platforms capable of delivering dramatically high performance-per-watt. The freely distributed, fully open Stream SDK allows programmers to make advanced use of AMD hardware, and helps them to create fast, energy efficient applications on a growing variety of platforms and operating systems. For more information please visit www.amd.com/stream

AMD is also using the occasion to unveil the AMD FireStream 9270 stream processor. The specifications of the Firestream 9270 include a 750MHz core clock, 2GB of 3.6Gbps (900MHz) GDDR5 RAM, and a max board power of 160 watts. The Firestream 9270 offers up to 1.2 TeraFLOPS or 240 double precision GFLOPS of compute performance as a standalone card, but of course multiple cards can be used in a cluster for even more performance. Details on the Firestream 9270 can be found here ATI Stream™ Backgrounder (PDF)

Source: AMD Press Release

Apps Of Maps, Fun With Google Maps

2008-11-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

Software developers are building unique applications using Google Earth and Google Maps to view all forms of information in their geographical context. The Google Lat Long Blog has pieced together a few of the apps in a posting titled "Apps of maps".

First up is a really clever and fun Google Maps app called geoGreeting. Software engineer Jesse Vig happened to notice that certain buildings took on the appearance of a letter of the alphabet when viewed from above. By entering your message on the send a geoGreeting page, characters matching your message will be generated and played as an animation that you can send to your friends and family. Ah, the number of times this site has bailed me out when I have forgotten to send a real card!

The next one is PlanePlotter. Aviation enthusiasts who enjoy spotting aircraft, whether up close or virtually, turn to tools that facilitate their understanding of the skies around them. One of the ways that PlanePlotter displays information is via Google Earth; when location, direction
and altitude information are plotted, you can get a pilot's eye view of the terrain around them.

Last, but by no means least is iLoveMountains. Under the umbrella of the non-profit group Appalachian Voices. Appalachian voices are a Google Earth Outreach grantee that engages in campaigning against mountaintop removal used in the production of coal. The iLoveMountains.org project lets people see their connection on Google Maps or Google Earth to mountaintop removal based on their U.S zip code. From there, people can learn about what involvement their local supplier may have in buying coal supplied using mountaintop removal techniques - and what action they can take. These kinds of "story-telling" KMLs & mashups stimulate the senses by giving a real feeling of connection to the place, illustrating the issues.

Some of those apps are pretty cool, the geoGretting app caught my attention. I thought it was an interesting trying to spell out a few greetings. I've created one for our readers, click here, Google also created their own message for users reading their post.

Intel Adds To Nehalem Lineup, Cuts Some Notebook CPUs

2008-11-13T15:32:00.001-08:00

According to reports at DigiTimes Intel is planning to launch several new Nehalem server CPUs including the new Xeon 5500 (Nehalem-EP) and Xeon 3500 series (Nehalem-WS) in the first quarter of 2009.

Intel will launch ten CPUs for the Xeon 5500 series: quad-core W5580 (3.2GHz), X5570 (2.93GHz), X5560 (2.8GHz), X5550 (2.66GHz), E5540 (2.53GHz), E5530 (2.4GHz), E5520 (2.26GHz), E5506 (2.13GHz), E5504 (2GHz) and dual-core E5502 with prices at US$1,600, US$1,386, US$1,172, US$958, US$744, US$530, US$373, US$266, US$224 and US$188 in thousand-unit tray quantities.

For the Xeon 3500 series, Intel will launch three CPUs: quad-core W3570, W3540 and W3520 priced at US$999, US$562 and US$284.

In additional news, Intel is planning to phase out seven notebook CPUs including the Core 2 Extreme X7900 and X7800, and Core 2 Duo T7800 and L7700 in January next year.

Gaming: EA Announces EA Sports Active

2008-11-13T13:50:00.000-08:00

Following on the success of Wii Fit EA has decided to jump into the fitness games arena with a new game called "EA Sports Active."

The game which was developed in collaboration with fitness experts is being geared more specifically for women, however EA does note that "EA SPORTS Active is perfect for the whole family."

"EA SPORTS Active and our entrance into the fitness space is an exciting and groundbreaking milestone for EA SPORTS," said Peter Moore, president, EA SPORTS. "As we continue to expand our brand, we have a real opportunity to redefine the home fitness experience with a more Western cardiovascular approach and exercises that will appeal to a diverse audience, getting people off the couch and into shape while interacting with our products in a way never before possible. EA SPORTS Active costs less than a gym membership, it provides a variety of exercises unlike a one dimensional in-home fitness contraption, and it delivers an interactive experience that you don't get from a DVD - this is a true fitness revolution and a space in which we intend to be leaders."

EA SPORTS Active features a wide variety of interactive activities combined into a circuit that targets both the upper and lower body as well as cardio, and supports two players to allow family or friends to get fit together. EA SPORTS Active provides a new level of motivation with on-screen, real-time feedback on your workout such as calories burned, while also allowing you to adjust intensity levels. The game will ship with two specially-designed leg straps that hold the Wii's Nunchuk controller to track lower body movements, as well as a resistance band to support a number of upper body strength training exercises.

For more information read the official EA Sports press release or visit www.easportsactive.com

AMD Officially Launches Shanghai, Announces Phenom II

2008-11-13T13:20:00.000-08:00

Today AMD officially announced widespread availability of its new 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor codenamed "Shanghai." AMD says the new CPU delivers up to 35 percent more performance with up to a 35 percent decrease in power consumption at idle.

The enhanced Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor delivers some of the most dramatic performance and performance-per-watt gains ever between AMD Opteron processor generations through the following:

Significantly higher CPU clock frequencies in the same power envelope in comparison to previous generations of the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor. This is the result of processor design enhancements, industry-leading AMD 45nm immersion lithography technology, and strong execution on processor design and validation.
A 200 percent increase in Level 3 cache size to 6MB to help speed memory-intensive applications like virtualization, database, and Java.
DDR2-800 memory support which delivers greater memory bandwidth than current AMD Opteron processors, and remains significantly more energy-efficient than Fully-Buffered DIMM technology found in competitive offerings.
Upcoming enhancements to the revolutionary AMD Direct Connect Architecture with coherent HyperTransport™ 3.0 technology, providing up to 17.6GB/s of bandwidth for processor-to-processor communication planned for Q2 2009.

The new "Shanghai" processors should be available at retailers immediately, in fact as we reported earlier this month many retailers had already began posting the new Opteron 8300 series CPUs.

Phenom II X4 Announced:

At the end of the "Shanghai" press release came the announcement of the new 45nm Phenom II X4 line.

The Phenom II X4 is expected to e released late this year and will follow the company’s smaller, faster 45nm Opteron chips. The new chip will feature 8MB of cache and support both DDR2 and DDR3 in the AM3 and AM2+ sockets. Phenom II X4 will be part of AMD’s “Dragon” platform that combines the new chip with DX10.1 graphics, the company’s new Stream GPU processing, OverDrive and Fusion for gaming utility.

AMD's new "Dragon" platform will be the second generation AMD performance desktop platform, featuring all next-generation components in comparison to the first generation AMD "Spider" platform released in 2008. The AMD "Dragon" platform is designed to harness the power of fusion by optimizing the performance of new 45nm AMD Phenom II X4 quad-core processors with award-winning AMD 700 Series chipsets and award-winning ATI Radeon HD 4000 series graphics.

VMware Adds Virtualization To Mobile Phones

2008-11-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

On Monday virtualization pioneer VMware unveiled its new Mobile Virtualization Platform (MVP) for Mobile Phones, based on technology it acquired fom Trango Virtual Processors last month.

"VMware is excited to extend the benefits of virtualization, which we pioneered for x86 hardware, to the mobile phone market. By abstracting the applications and data from the hardware itself, we expect that virtualization will not only enable handset vendors to accelerate time to market but can also pave the way for innovative applications and services for phone users. We look forward to working closely with our partners to bring new mobile solutions to market faster." Paul Maritz, President and Chief Executive Officer of VMware

VMware MVP is a thin layer of software that is embedded on a mobile phone to decouple the applications and data from the underlying hardware. It is optimized to run efficiently on low power consuming and memory constrained mobile phones. The MVP currently supports a wide range of real-time and rich operating systems including Windows CE 5.0 and 6.0, Linux 2.6.x, Symbian 9.x, eCos, µITRON NORTi and µC/OS-II.

The intent is to isolate the applications and data from the hardware so that handset manufacturers can deploy devices more quickly and so that application developers can write a mobile app or service once and run it anywhere. VMware notes: "Today handset vendors spend significant time and effort getting new phones to market due to the use of multiple chipsets, operating systems and device drivers across the product family. This means the same software stack does not work across all the phones and considerable time and effort is spent porting the software stack multiple times, once for each platform, a slow and expensive process which slows time to market. Because VMware MVP virtualizes the hardware, handset vendors can develop a software stack with an operating system and a set of applications not tied to the underlying hardware allowing them to deploy the same software stack on a wide variety of phones without worrying about the underlying hardware differences. At the same time, by isolating the device drivers from the operating system, handset vendors can further reduce porting costs by using the same drivers irrespective of the operating system deployed on the phone."

Our Favorite Silicon Valley Gossip Rag Shuts Down

2008-11-12T21:15:00.000-08:00

Gawker Media has decided to shut down our favorite Silicon Valley rag, Valleywag. Valleywag won't entirely disappear, editor Owen Thomas will have his job folded into a single column on the Gawker.com site.

Owen may have shot himself in the foot with one of his off handed remarks , or maybe he just saw the light at the end of the tunnel when he posted his comment "I would soon be writing Valleywag as a column for Gizmodo or Gawker, whichever will take me."

I was initially introduced to Valleywag back in the Mahalo days, when I was checking out their love hate relationship with Jason Calacanis. When I found them they seemed to share many of my sentiments about JC, which really drew me in. Then I became hooked on the off handed, even spiteful posts.

*Update*

Thanks to Valleywag's Paul Boutin more details about the Valleywag being blended into Gawker have emerged. Paul posts "What just happened at Valleywag? The FAQ." Thanks for the clarification Paul.

Most of the details are unimportant but the major one that is is that the Valleywag.com URL will still work, Valleywag's RSS feed will still work. And no readers will not have to go to Gawker.com to read Valleywag stories.

How Your Favorite Tech Got Its Name

2008-11-12T06:15:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder how popular tech products like Firefox, the iPod, Twitter and Wikipedia all got their names? Well the crew at CIO have made an interesting little list of how some of these popular tech products actually got their names.

The list includes 10 tech products; the iPod, BlackBerry, Firefox, Twitter, Windows 7, ThinkPad, Android, Wikipedia, Mac OS X and the "Big Cats," and Red Hat Linux.

Some of these are pretty obvious, Windows 7 of course is because the new OS will be the seventh edition of Windows, but a couple might surprise you.

Google Adds Voice/Video Chat To Gmail

2008-11-12T05:30:00.000-08:00

Google has added video and voice capabilities for the chat function that is already embedded in the Gmail interface. Details were posted yesterday on the Official Google Blog as well as the Official Gmail Blog.

The new chat tools are accessed through the main Gmail interface and users who want to use the service must install a small plug-in (only a couple of megabytes in size) to his or her Web-browser. Gmail runs in Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Google's Chrome beta.

Once you install the plugin, to start a video chat, just click on the "Video & more" menu at the bottom of your Gmail chat window, and choose "Start video chat." You'll have a few seconds to make sure you look presentable while it's ringing, and then you'll see and hear your friend live, right from within Gmail. You can click the "pop-out" iconto make the video larger, or click the fullscreen iconin the upper left-hand corner for a fully immersive experience.

As you can see from the video the interface is fairly basic and you shouldn't expect a ton of features. Its also worth noting that some reviewers have stated having lag issues or slow downs in PC responsiveness in older systems. Simplicity aside, the new voice/video chat is a fairly useful tool to anyone that already uses Gmail chat.

Rumor: Possible Details Of AT&T iPhone Tethering Plan

2008-11-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

Last week AT&T confirmed a new "official" tethering plan for the iPhone. Citing sources that work within AT&T MacBlogz has posted a few details of what that plan is expected to look like.

• 5GB Data Cap (just like Blackberry users) - AT&T will automatically turn off your tethering connection if you use too much bandwidth. Of note, the 5GB cap might get sliced for all users, not just iPhone users, in order to accommodate all new tethering plan customers (bandwidth demand).
• Initial connection through iTunes? (not sure if this is every time you connect, or just for initial setup)
• Expected speeds: GPRS: 30k - dialup speeds / EDGE: 110k - ISDN speeds / 3G: 1000k - slow broadband.
• You’ll want to disable auto-updates for everything, so as to not go over usage limitations.
• Will be +$30/month, new iPhone plans may be rolled out with tethering rolled in.
• Do not pro-rate tethering/bandwidth, it can become a nightmare, instead wait until new billing cycle.
• For unlimited bandwidth, AT&T will tell you to get a wireless PC card.
• No idea on a launch date.

Now keep in mind that none of this has any release dates associated with it whatsoever, nor has any of it actually been confirmed. AT&T is notorious for keeping a tight lid on things as well as making last min. changes. But the plan does sound inline with other offerings from AT&T. This plan would be identical to that which AT&T already offers to Blackberry users.

At an additional $30/mo the plan does seem a little steep to me. Looking at it this way; if you’re already paying $80 per month for your iPhone 3G, you’ll be paying at least $110 if you want a tethering plan. So its possible (unlikely but possible) that AT&T may release new iPhone 3G plans with tethering built into your monthly bill (emphasis on may).